Trump Admin Mass Health Agency Layoffs Begin

What Happened?

The Trump administration has initiated laying off members at major U.S. health agencies as part of its plan to cut 10,000 government health jobs.

Employees across the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS), including the CDC and FDA, have reportedly begun receiving dismissal notices on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump's advisor Elon Musk is tasked with assisting DOGE in attempting to reduce the HHS workforce from 82,000 to 62,000.

At least four directors from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and nearly entire communications staff were terminated, an agency source told The Associated Press.

Dozens of FDA staffers who regulate drugs and tobacco products had also reportedly received termination notices.

The announcements come just days after President Trump had moved to strip many government health workers of their collective bargaining rights.

'It’s a terrible dark day,' one CDC staffer told NBC News after cuts were made to divisions responsible for tackling HIV and improving minority health.

Dr. Ashish Jha of the Brown University School of Public Health told NPR that she worries what the implications of all of this will be.

'I'm worried that what we're going to see is more people getting sick, more disease outbreaks, and infrastructure that is going to be less and less capable of responding to those threats,' she said.

Why it Matters

HHS said last week that it will consolidate from 28 to 15 divisions across health agencies and reduce regional offices from 10 to five.

This includes adding a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA).

The department has reportedly offered some employees early retirement and resignation packages of up to $25,000 and several weeks of pay.

In accordance with Trump's executive order, the reductions are aimed to help save the government $1.8 billion per year.

'This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a previous statement.

According to NBC News, Kennedy promised to hollow out the NIH and CDC during his presidential bid last year.

Despite the drastic restructuring of HHS, programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential health services will reportedly remain intact.

The Trump administration has pushed forward with government-wide cuts to address the nation's debt deficit through its 'Reduction in Force' (RIF) plan.

The HHS and other federal departments were all required to submit plans that involved downsizing their workforces.

How it Affects You

Union leaders have challenged what some have called 'executive overreach' as lawsuits continue to pile in.

Some courts have deemed many of these terminations illegal.

But more importantly, agency leaders say that the cuts are a blow to health, medicine, and biomedical research in the U.S.

Public health efforts could soon be jeopardized as more cuts are expected to disrupt the government in the coming months.